![]() ![]() Six hours of intense fighting later, and the Crimean Khanate started to retreat. The Crimean forces raided the half-defended town and ran out of ammunition so fast that they needed to turn enemy arrows fired at them into improvised rounds for their long rifles. The Hussars had only a single night to turn the town into a fortress, to defend themselves with no supplies and no backup. ![]() Want to know who undoubtedly pulled off a heroic victory when faced with 62-to-1 odds? The Polish Winged Hussars.Ī 400-strong Hussar unit was being attacked on two fronts by the 25,000+ Crimean Khanate forces, and they were backed into the tiny village of Hodow. The Spartans were bad*sses, yes, but some elements of their most famous tale are questionable. But when you start looking deeper into it, you'll quickly realize there are plenty of things they left out for the sake of the comic (and, later, film adaption), like the actual numbers of Greeks aiding them and how poorly trained most of the Persians were. They Put the Battle of Thermopylae to ShameĮveryone praises the Spartans for pitting 300 troops against the mighty Persian army. ![]() The Hussars eventually got their own firearms, which meant their enemies now had to deal with a heavily armored Hussars charging at them with spears, swords, war hammers and rifles. The Hussars never really got the memo, though, and they'd still charge into battle, decked out in armor that could take a bullet or two and close the distance before their enemy got a chance to reload. No single piece of military tech changed warfare quite like firearms.įirearms instantaneously made arrows obsolete and swords pointless - if you can keep your distance. They Adapted Extremely Well to FirearmsĪs new technologies are introduced to the battlefield, old tactics get thrown out. In an era when it was unlikely that you'd ever even see a neighboring city, what were you supposed to make of the rapidly approaching, heavily armed legion of vengeful, glittering angels? 3. Oil on canvas by unknown artist, late seventeenth century.Hussars were shock troops, meaning that they needed to instill as much fear as they could as fast and effectively as they could - before the enemy has a chance to realize what's going on. Stephen’s Cathedral, can be seen in the background. The city of Vienna, including the famous St. His heroic posture sets him apart from the confusion of smoke, men, and weaponry depicted in the image. A robust Sobieski appears on horseback, slightly left of center and in the extreme foreground of the scene (in fact, one of his horse’s hooves is cut off by the lower edge of the canvas). This painting shows the relief army descending from a hillside overlooking Vienna (the Kahlenberg hillside is visible on the left). The people of Vienna embraced Sobieski as their liberator. Under Sobieski’s command, imperial forces scored a decisive victory over Ottoman troops at the Battle of Kahlenberg on September 12, 1683, and thereby lifted the siege. The combined relief army of approximately 80,000 troops consisted of roughly 27,000 Polish soldiers (among them 3,000 highly trained “Winged Hussars”) 19,000 Austrians 10,500 Bavarians 9,000 Saxons and 9,500 soldiers from the southwestern German principalities. Sobieski agreed and joined Charles of Lorraine, the electors of Saxony and Bavaria, and numerous German princes in an alliance against the Turks. Alarmed by this threat to Christian Europe, Pope Innocent XI asked Polish king Jan Sobieski (r. In July 1683, roughly 150,000 Ottoman troops laid siege to Vienna, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. The Battle of Kahlenberg: Imperial Troops Defeat the Turks on Septem(Late 17th Century) ![]()
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